JoAnn Price is the Co-Founder of Fairview Capital Partners, one of the largest minority-owned investment management firms in the United States.
Since its founding in 1994, Fairview has raised more than $10 billion in aggregate capital, investing on behalf of pension funds, foundations, endowments, and family offices seeking access to diverse and emerging private equity and venture capital managers.
In this conversation, Price discusses how Fairview was built, how the firm evaluates fund managers, and what three decades of institutional track record reflects about the opportunity in diverse manager investing.
From Trade Association to Institutional Intermediary
Fairview emerged from a structural gap that Price, then running a Washington-based trade association representing Small Business Investment Companies, was positioned to see clearly. SBICs had already played a documented role in funding some of the country’s most recognizable Black-owned businesses, including Radio One, TV One, and Essence magazine, but their capital base had a ceiling.
The association’s leadership believed public pension funds represented the next logical source of capital for diverse managers. Price was asked to build the intermediary that would make that connection work. She was not immediately sold on the idea. “You cannot do anything new or innovative if you don’t believe it,” she said, “and so I had to get to a place where I genuinely believed this next step was the right one.”
She spent two and a half years marketing the first fund before it closed at $100 million in 1994. “Nothing significant happens without a lot of people participating in whatever way they can. This was a first, and you needed a lot of believers.” The firm drew on years of SBIC performance data to make the institutional case to pension fund allocators who had no existing framework for evaluating this type of vehicle.
How the Fund-of-Funds Model Works
Fairview raises capital from institutional investors and deploys it into private equity and venture capital funds rather than directly into operating companies. This structure gives pension systems and foundations portfolio-level exposure to diverse managers without requiring each institution to independently identify and monitor dozens of fund relationships.
The firm’s competitive position depends on accessing funds that its investors could not easily reach on their own. “For a fund-of-funds, in order to stay in business, you have to be able to invest in those funds that others don’t have access to,” Price said. “We have to be sought-after investors, and at the same time constantly growing and seeking out new opportunities so that we’re in them early.” Fairview manages both customized separate account mandates for large pension systems and commingled vehicles that pool capital from a broader institutional base.
What Fairview Looks for in a Fund Manager
Fairview’s manager selection integrates track record assessment with a close evaluation of team dynamics. Sector expertise matters, as does the ability to make high-stakes decisions as a functioning partnership. Price places particular weight on what she describes as professional humility. “You’ve got to be determined, tough, and focused, but there has to be an understanding that you don’t know everything. If you come into this business thinking that you do, you’re going to have a tough time.”
In her experience, sustained performance comes down to how managers construct and operate their partnerships. “Often it’s not how much you know. It has a lot more to do with how you put together your program, how you make decisions, whether you respect your partners’ abilities. When you look back at those that have made it and not, often it has to do with all of those human characteristics.”
Thirty Years of Institutional Track Record
Fairview has operated continuously for three decades through multiple market cycles. That longevity reflects sustained institutional confidence. “You can get into business,” Price said. “Then the next thing is you have to be able to stay in the business and grow the business.” The firm’s investor base has continued to allocate to Fairview because performance has been consistent with institutional requirements.
The firm also maintains the internal diversity it advocates for externally. Price is direct about why that standard is non-negotiable. “You can’t talk about diversity and not have diversity in what you do. It’s part of a belief system. We have to believe that you can succeed, that you can find the firms, grow the firms, and take advantage of the vast resources available to us across the country.”
